


Statement Begins

by sleepcities



Category: Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, Percy Jackson and the Olympians - Rick Riordan, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Alternate Universe - The Magnus Archives, Body Horror, Gen, M/M, Minor Annabeth Chase/Percy Jackson, Minor Thalia Grace/Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano - Freeform, One-Sided Nico di Angelo/Percy Jackson, PLEASE READ THE CHAPTER WARNINGS. PLEASE., Screenplay/Script Format, The Magnus Archives Spoilers, Trypophobia, [shane madej voice] cult... stuff, and since this is a tma au, asshole eldritch beings, horror themes, i'll try to summarize the basic jist of whatever's relevant, if u haven't listened to tma and don't plan to, like i cannot stress this enough there are SPOILERS, one particular eldritch being that comes VERY close to themes of depression, psychological horror ?, worms but like in the worst possible way
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-05-19
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-03 02:48:46
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,189
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24267706
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sleepcities/pseuds/sleepcities
Summary: (light tapping on microphone)Alright, then.(clears throat)This is Nico di Angelo, research assis—um, head archivist of the New York location of the Argus Foundation, a research facility that records and studies instances of paranormal activity.In other words, "Nico gets a job promotion and then everything goes wrong."
Relationships: Nico di Angelo/Jason Grace
Comments: 9
Kudos: 33





	1. Case #0080817

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Statement of Darrin Baker, regarding a hotel in Las Vegas.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: unreality.

[TAPE CLICKS ON.]

**ARCHIVIST**

_(light tapping on microphone)_

Alright, then. _(clears throat)_ This is Nico di Angelo, research assis—um, head archivist of the New York location of the Argus Foundation, a research facility that records and studies instances of paranormal activity. 

_(dry laugh)_ I—sorry. I applied here as a research assistant after I transferred to university, and I just recently graduated.I don’t really know why I was promoted so quickly.Silena and Annabeth have been working here longer than I have, but… _(sighs)_ Quintus Day, the current director of the Foundation, insisted that my degree would lend itself better to archival work than research.I don’t really know if that’s a compliment or not, but he said I was the only one qualified for this position.

Our last head archivist was Rachel Elizabeth Dare.One day last month, she just didn’t show up to work.Quintus had Octavian call her at home; no answer.Nobody knows where she is, but I guess after a while, her assistants got too busy with their own research to work on archiving it properly, so now here I am.

She was really nice, apparently—Silena knew her, and so did Annabeth and her, uh, boyfriend, Percy Jackson.They did say she was kind of eccentric, though, and Annabeth didn’t really seem surprised by the current state of the archives.

You probably know the gist of it, but basically, the Argus Foundation records statements of potential encounters with supernatural forces.Then, we try to verify details of the encounter as much as possible and rule out any natural explanations. If we come across a case we can't reasonably debunk, we try to collect evidence that the occurrence was caused by something beyond science as we know it, and then we try to figure out the science behind the paranormal event.Genuinely supernatural phenomena are pretty rare, so a lot of our cases are, like, people who have misidentified large birds, but some things really don’t have any known cause.In a way, the Foundation wants to make the supernatural more natural.It’s not like these things _have_ no explanation, we just don’t know what it is yet.

_(clears throat)_ Anyway.After our researchers have done as much investigation as they can, a case gets archived.Except… it looks like most of the actual investigations never made it here.The files here look like they're almost _all_ just the statements with no attached information, and there are _so many_ of them.I can’t figure out Rachel’s organization system.Annabeth didn’t understand it either.Plus, the files are all handwritten by the statement-givers with no backup, so if there’s a fire, we lose them all. Octavian, Quintus' personal assistant, is having me organize and back up the statements at the same time by doing this.

Sorry that you’re having to listen to all of this on tape.I, um, have some trouble staying focused when I try to copy things via typing, and some of our team are dyslexic, so I thought audio might be a better format.But there are some statements that I can’t get to record on my laptop.I’m not sure why.Usually GarageBand just refuses to record, but there have been a couple that I got through, just for the audio to glitch out when I tried to play them back.Now that I’m thinking about it, I did try typing some of those out, too, but my computer just crashed, so… those ones I’ll have to put on the tapes.

Annabeth, Silena, and Jason said they’d try to help out with recording, but since most of their work is in research and investigation, they won’t have as much time for it as I will.

It’s a lot, really, but I suppose this is as good a place as any to start.So... here we... go?

_(clears throat again)_

Statement of Darrin Baker, regarding a hotel in Las Vegas.Initially submitted August 17, 2008.Recorded June 06, 2017 by Nico di Angelo, head archivist of the Argus Foundation, New York City.

Statement begins.

**ARCHIVIST (STATEMENT** )

I swear to god I’m sixteen.Or, somewhere around there.

You can see me, can’t you?Do I look forty-five?I’m _not_.That’s bogue.But I was born in 1963.

My parents decided to take us—my sister and me—to Vegas for Christmas break.We left on December 10, 1977.I was fourteen.We were looking forward to it all semester, and we had a room booked for a four-star hotel, and we were gonna be there for the _entire_ break, so we weren’t gonna see our weird aunts and uncles. We were pretty psyched.Of course we were.It was supposed to be the vacation of a lifetime.

I guess it sort of was.

It started getting weird when the taxi dropped us off.We were supposed to stay at a Hilton, right?Mom gave the driver the address—something something Las Vegas Boulevard. How was I gonna forget that?The street name was the same as the city name.I _know_ where we were supposed to be.But then we got out of the cab, and the driver took off before my parents could stop him, but they were totally confused.Mom said the address was right, but the hotel didn’t look like it was a Hilton.The sign said _Lotus Hotel and Casino_.Dad thought that maybe they were “rebranding” or something, and they went to check with the front desk.

I don’t remember if they ever actually made it to the front desk.The entire lobby was just a big arcade, with every game I could imagine and more I’d never heard of, and the ones I’d never seen before looked _way_ better than anything I’d ever seen in the arcades at home.It was weird, but it was a giant fancy hotel in Vegas, so I guess I just kind of expected it to be like that.

The bellhop acted like he was expecting us already.I think he even knew our names, but I can’t be sure. I don't really remember.He took our bags, told us our room numbers, and handed us these cards that looked like room keys, but the guy said they were good to spend on anything in the hotel.My sister and I thought maybe our parents managed to get some crazy hotel credit or something, whichI _know_ doesn’t make sense.They probably couldn’t have afforded something like that, but since the workers were the ones who gave it to us, we didn’t really ask questions, you know? If anything, maybe there was some kind of mistake and they gave our family the hotel credit by accident.

When we planned the trip, we were supposed to be all in one room.I remember that because my sister and I were mad that we’d have to either share a bed or have one person on the couch, but the hotel staff said they had some openings and gave us all our own rooms.The rooms were huge.I had a mini fridge, some kind of snack bar, and this _massive_ TV, all to myself.

Mom and Dad said they were going to nap off the flight, so I went back down to the lobby to play some of the games.I ended up going back every day we were there.

I thought we’d been there for about two weeks when I ran into that kid.

Let me back up, though.

Over the time that I was in the Lotus Hotel, things changed fast.Like, _fast_.A week into our vacation, they started stocking new chips in the room snack bars.They had chili cheese Fritos.A couple hours later they had _spicy Cheetos_.The TV kept getting flatter, and the screen kept getting bigger, and the picture kept getting better.Every day after the day we checked in, the game room would be blasting music I’d never heard before.I guess I should have questioned it, but I didn't.

The games kept getting better, too.They were always switching out the machines, like literally every day, and they only kept the _really_ popular ones, but I remember going down the second day and thinking, _Wow, the graphics on this are_ ** _righteous_**.And then I went down the next day and thought that again.

I did that for two weeks.Wake up, order from room service—the first couple days I asked how much was left on the card, and they just told me there was no way it would run out before I left—eat, go play games, eat at one of the restaurants for lunch, play more games, go to my parents’ room for dinner and eat more room service.

Then one day, it should have been almost Christmas, there was this kid playing games next to me.I didn’t get his name, but we were playing a first-person shooter on this VR simulator.I’ve been out long enough to know what that is, now.

All of a sudden, the kid stopped playing, turned around, and asked me what year it was.I thought he was bugged out or something.

Then I told him it was 1977, and he started bugging for _real_.

“No, really,” he said, like he thought I was joking.

I brushed him off and went back to the game, but he ran off.He started looking for someone, and then he and two other kids ran out. I'm not exaggerating. They _ran_ like the hotel was going to kill them if they stayed another second.They'd just gotten there maybe an hour before, but the way they left freaked me out. I couldn’t let it go.

I went outside for the first time in our entire vacation a few hours later.Then I thought _I_ was bugging.Everyone was dressed weirdly, but the first thing that got me were the cars.The cars were different.The buildings were different, too; they were taller, the lights were brighter.The restaurants weren’t the same ones that were there when we checked in.A couple of kids looked at me weird, but _they_ were the ones that looked weird.Some chick was wearing a skirt over her jeans. Who on earth does that?

I was so freaked out that I stopped a random couple in their fifties to ask what the date was.I think they thought it was some kind of gimmick, but they told me anyway: September 18, 2006.

_2006._

I ran back inside to get my family.By the time I convinced them to leave, it was November.

We got a lot of weird looks when we left.All of my parents’ cards were expired, but the hotel cards from the Lotus Hotel worked for _everything_.Mom and Dad booked flights home with them and used them to take a taxi out of the airport.When we got to our street, though, our apartment building wasn’t there anymore.

We had to move. Obviously, we had to move, except there was nothing to move, and there was nowhere to move from. We just had to find a place to live, and in the mean time, we stayed in another hotel. I think it was hard to get, like, the legal papers and stuff sorted out, but I guess we had infinite money from the cards, so it wasn’t that much of a problem.Mom and Dad never had to go back to work again. That was nice for them, and it meant they didn’t have to deal with their birth certificates and everything being looked at _too_ carefully, but I can’t _deal_ with all of this, man.I don’t know if the passport I have right now is real, or legal.I have to get a state ID in a couple years and I don’t know if I have to lie about my birthday.It’s hard to talk to kids at school because I don’t know what they’re _saying_ half the time.

I guess you guys can’t really help with that, right?I just want to know if this is something that’s happened to anyone else.I want to know if _I spent thirty years in a hotel over two weeks_ is an explanation I can give the people at the DMV.I think I want to go back, but you guys probably can’t help with that either.Can you?

**ARCHIVIST**

Statement ends.

If there was any follow-up investigation to this statement, it’s not attached to the statement itself.If I ever come across it, I’ll put that tape with this one.

For now, though, I asked Jason to look into this case. 

There was a Darrin Baker born on March 22, 1963, and that Darrin Baker is on file as having a mother, a father, and a younger sister.The entire family was reported missing in January 1978, weeks after they were supposed to return home from a vacation to, you guessed it, Las Vegas.This is all publicly available information, so I suppose this could have been some kind of prank, but it should be considered that records of a family with names exactly matching those of the members of the missing one _did_ appear in late 2006.Silena reached out to the family, but none of them wanted to give a follow-up statement.

As for the hotel, there is nothing to corroborate the existence of any “Lotus Hotel and Casino”.It definitely isn’t a chain, and it doesn’t look like there were any standalone locations.There do seem to be a few Hilton locations on Las Vegas Boulevard, but according to the staff and the City of Las Vegas' official business records, none of them ever went by the name “Lotus”.

I’d be ready to file this case as unverified, except for… a few things.

First of all, Annabeth was acting strange when I brought up the case.It seems like she didn’t really want to talk about it to me, but a couple days later, she came in to explain.

_ (long pause) _

Percy Jackson was the one that asked Darrin what year it was.Annabeth was in the hotel at the time, too, and she said that they accidentally spent three days in the hotel over the span of what felt like a few hours.She asked Percy to confirm the name of the person he spoke to in the hotel and the year that that person said it was, and Percy corroborated that much of Darrin’s story.

Secondly…  I’ve been there myself.My older sister would be able to confirm this if she were still alive, but she… _(clears throat)_ Our father took us there for a month in May, 1939, right after we moved to America. _(deep breath)_ When we left, it was 2007.

Re—recording ends.

[TAPE CLICKS OFF.]

⏪ ⏸ ⏩


	2. Case #0171003

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Statement of Jason Grace, research assistant to the archival team of the Argus Foundation, New York City, regarding a suspicious statuary and a potential interaction with Luke Castellan.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapter warnings: moderate to severe grossness, TMA-typical worms (so, like, a lot of fucking worms), trypophobia, graphic depictions of statues. Really gross imagery. Rotting people.

[TAPE CLICKS ON.]

**ARCHIVIST**

Are you sure you want me in the room for this?

**JASON**

I mean, if you end up needing any clarification, it’d probably be better to get it right away.

**ARCHIVIST**

I suppose.

[SILENCE.]

**JASON**

So… where should I start?

**ARCHIVIST**

You can give a brief description of where you were and what you were doing in the time leading up to the incident for background, and then just describe the incident, I guess.Most of the statements have gone something like that.

**JASON**

Right.

**ARCHIVIST**

…

**JASON**

…

**ARCHIVIST**

…

**JASON**

Um… do you need to… like…?

**ARCHIVIST**

Oh!Oh. 

Statement of Jason Grace, archival assistant at the Argus Foundation, New York, regarding…?

**JASON**

Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium, mostly.I mean, that’s the objectively important part, but I think I might’ve also come across one of our, uh, previous statement givers.

**ARCHIVIST**

_(chokes, coughs)_ What?

**JASON**

I don’t know for sure, but it, uh, it’s been bothering me.

**ARCHIVIST**

Alright, then. 

Recorded direct from subject on October 03, 2017.Statement begins.

**JASON**

Should I just…?

**ARCHIVIST**

Yeah, just talk into the end of the recorder.

**JASON**

You really couldn’t get the laptop mic to work?

**ARCHIVIST**

_(snorts)_ No, I couldn’t, and, yes, I’ve already tried using my phone _and_ my own laptop.Any more questions?

**JASON**

No, no, sorry, it’s—isn’t that kind of weird?

**ARCHIVIST**

_(sighs)_

…Sorry, I didn’t meant to snap at you.But yeah, it’s weird, and I don’t have another solution yet, so we’re stuck with the tapes for now.

**JASON**

It’s okay!It just seems like a lot of work for you.

**ARCHIVIST**

It’s fine, honestly, but did you still want to—?

**JASON**

…Yeah.

_(deep breath)_

_(shakily)_ Right.

I included this in my incident summary already, and I called Quintus about it while I was driving back from my investigation, but we need to file a report with New Jersey authorities.I’m pretty sure the entire place is a crime scene.

**ARCHIVIST**

_(exhale)_ _Shit._

**JASON**

Yeah, I know.

_(pause)_

Do you remember when we got that case about the garden gnome vendor with the moving statues last week?I was the one who picked it up when we finished our previous assignments a couple days ago.It isn't usually up to the archival assistants to handle investigations, but the research team has been so tied up recently that we’ve been taking care of them.

I started by looking the place up—it’s some middle-of-nowhere statue vendor called “Aunty Em’s Garden Gnome Emporium”.

_(sigh)_ I wasn’t able to find anything to corroborate the claim of moving gnomes, but there have been at least four disappearances in the past decade where the missing person was last seen or heard from at that statuary.I know it was stupid of me to do a follow-up investigation _after_ reading about all that, but… again, you know, it’s my job now.Besides, four people in ten years is a small enough number to be a coincidence.There are probably more people who were last seen at the Chipotle by the NYU Medical Center than at this weird statue vendor.

So I went yesterday. 

The place is all the way in Leeds Point in Jersey, so it took maybe three hours to get there with the traffic.I pulled off of the highway, parked on the side of the road because I didn’t see a parking lot, and went to go check it out.

[SHIFTING.FABRIC RUSTLING.]

I actually thought I was in the wrong place for a minute, but the sign on the building was right.Maybe they were in the middle of rebranding or something, but there weren’t actually any garden gnomes there.At all.There were _statues_ , but they were all full-sized and human and _really_ realistic.They weren’t generic or perfect-looking.They looked like _people_. I wanted to leave.At first, I thought they were just freaking me out because they were too uncanny, but I started noticing that they also looked… scared?Every single statue looked like it was about to be terrified.

**ARCHIVIST**

What do you mean, _about to be_ terrified?

**JASON**

_(dry laugh)_ See, aren’t you glad you decided to stick around for the recording?

This is going to sound stupid, but they all looked like they were halfway through making a face like they were afraid but then got stopped before they could finish the expression.It was _really_ bizarre.

The statues weren’t really arranged in any way, except that none of them were facing the highway, so when you try to walk in, you’re staring at their backs.None of them are on pedestals, so the ones where the feet weren’t completely flat had fallen over.A couple of them were broken.Nothing had a price tag.I don’t know how they expected to sell anything, but apparently most of their clients are rich and, uh, kind of eccentric, so I guess that checks out.

Anyway, the place was completely closed.The lights were off, the doors were locked.There was a truck parked in the back, but I figured it must have been the company car, because I tried knocking on the door to the shop, just in case, and there was no answer.It smelled like someone was grilling a ton of meat, though.

But there really didn’t seem to be anyone there, so I thought it would be fine if I looked around a little.I figured that if anyone asked why I was there, I could always say that I was trying to buy something.

**ARCHIVIST**

Sounds reasonable.

**JASON**

I mean, the place looked completely deserted, I didn’t see any cameras, and both of the businesses next to it looked like they hadn’t opened since the 70’s.I probably didn’t need to have an explanation.But… I don’t know, it felt like someone might at least be _around._ I didn’t want the Foundation to get into legal trouble just because I was on private property while they were apparently closed during their regular business hours, you know?

**ARCHIVIST**

No, no, I get it.Just… maybe don’t admit that if the police actually look into your report, okay?

**JASON**

Of course! Again, I won’t get you into trouble or anything, I swear.

**ARCHIVIST**

That’s not—

_(hum)_

Go on.

**JASON**

The building was in the center of the plot of land it was on, so it was surrounded by statues on all sides.Now that I think about it, it was kind of weird that all the statues were out like that when there didn’t seem to be any employees out. 

_(groan)_ I should have realized that sooner.It was grey and kind of cloudy, and it looked like it might rain, which I don’t think is good for some statues?Erosion, and everything?But they weren’t covered or anything.And they were just completely unattended.Not secured even a little bit.I guess I kind of figured that if they didn’t mind their stuff _breaking,_ maybe they didn’t care if some of it got damaged or stolen, either.That, and I couldn’t imagine someone stealing anything from there.Er.Until… uh, until I did.

**ARCHIVIST**

You _what?_

_(muffled—the recorder is being covered)_ Are you insane?Did you tell Quintus about this, too?If he decides to hand over this tape to investigators, you’re going to—you can’t admit to petty theft to the _cops,_ especially _after_ you already admitted to trespassing!

_(still muffled, but he’s audibly calmer)_ Look, let’s start from the beginning, and I’ll record over this, but just.Leave that out, okay?

**JASON**

_(also muffled)_ Wait, stop!

[SHUFFLING.]

**ARCHIVIST**

Wh—?

[MORE SHUFFLING, A CLATTER.]

**ARCHIVIST**

Hey—!

[SOUND OF THE TAPE RECORDER BEING PICKED UP AND PLACED BACK ON THE DESK.]

**JASON**

Sorry, sorry, just.Hear me out.That part of the story is important.So is the trespassing.I don’t care if it’s on record.If I get fined, I get fined, it’s okay.

**ARCHIVIST**

What?

**JASON**

I’m serious.If I hadn’t looked around, I never would have figured out… any of this.And if I hadn’t stolen that statue head, I’d have no proof.

**ARCHIVIST**

I—you—

_( **deep** deep breath)_

Okay.Okay.

**JASON**

While I was walking around to the back of the building, I realized that it _wasn’t_ that all of the statues had their back turned to the highway.They were all facing the building.Even if their bodies weren’t, their faces were turned to look at the store.Weird, right?

Yeah, well, it got weirder.

Before I left for the follow-up, I spent a lot of time looking at the missing persons files.And when I got to the back of the sale yard, I… found one of the missing people.Or, at least, I found a statue of him.

[PAPERS RUSTLING.]

This is Ferdinand Underwood.He went missing May 12, 1984.

One of the broken down statues was _him_.The hair, the facial features, I swear, even the clothing looked like what he was described in the last time he was seen. 

I thought that was a coincidence, but then I saw another one, and it was in tact this time.

[MORE PAPERS.]

This is Evangeline Robinson.Her file actually included a picture taken the day she disappeared.The statue was _definitely_ her, down to the necklace she was wearing.

_(heavy, exasperated sigh)_ God, this is going to sound crazy….

I think—look, I think that Aunty Em’s is somehow using molds of real people to make their statues, but I think that… maybe… making them into molds… kills them?I don’t know.I know how that sounds.

**ARCHIVIST**

It’s… awfully _Criminal Minds_.Or, like, _Saw_ , maybe?

**JASON**

I _know._ So I… took Ferdinand Underwoods’ head and ran back to the car.I tried taking pictures first, but they wouldn’t save, or—

**ARCHIVIST**

They wouldn’t save?

**JASON**

No.Either the photo just wouldn’t show up in my camera roll at all, or it would be a black screen.

So I just… took the head?

**ARCHIVIST**

Do you still have it?The head?And the blank photos?

**JASON**

I turned the head in to artifacts.You can check with them if you want to see it yourself.I can… recover the photos and send them to you, I guess, but they’re empty. 

[PAPER TEARING SOUND, A BALLPOINT PEN BEING TESTED AND THEN USED TO WRITE.]

**ARCHIVIST**

Text them to me later.

**JASON**

I—sure, yeah, okay.I will.But… that’s not all.

I was sitting in the car, looking through the files, and I had my jacket over the head just in case anyone walked by, and—okay, so Aunty Em’s is on the side of this two-lane highway.The other side is just forest, and I thought I saw something moving in the woods. 

It turned out that I was right.

There was something that looked like a man at the edge of the tree line.I don’t know if it was _him_ , but he was covered in all of these… they looked like worms?Or maybe maggots?He had sores all over his body.Almost none of his skin was skin-colored anymore, because the parts that weren’t just… holes were scabbing over, or raw, or pus, or… it was terrible.I could see through to the bone on parts of his face.The worms were just… eating him alive, and it didn’t seem to bother him at _all_.

**ARCHIVIST**

_(quietly)_ Luke Castellan.You read his statement?

**JASON**

I was working as an archival assistant when he came in last year.Rachel had me take his statement.

It… really might have been him.The hair color was about right, and whatever I saw was about the same height as Luke would’ve been, I think.I don’t know what Luke Castellan could possibly be doing at an abandoned statue store in New Jersey, but it… did look like him.

If it was him, I don’t know if he recognized me.But he saw me.He looked right at me, or, I guess, he turned toward me.There weren’t… he didn’t have eyes, so I guess he couldn’t really have seen me, but it felt like he did.And he started to cross the highway.

There were so many worms, and they started crawling toward the car.I threw it in reverse for probably half a mile before I made a U-turn, just so I wouldn’t have to get closer to them. 

I made it back in two hours and returned the car to the Foundation.I thought… I thought I was safe.I made it back.There’s no way—but he did.

**ARCHIVIST**

“No way” _what_.

**JASON**

When I got home, there was a hole in my door.In the space between the door and the doorframe, I can see the deadbolt when it’s locked, right?It wasn’t locked.

I thought maybe someone had broken in while I was at work or something.But then, I… put my ear against the door.On the other side, I heard… I know that _squirming_ isn’t a sound, but that’s what I heard.And then there was a footstep.Just one.And right against the other side of the door, there was a laugh.

I don’t remember Luke’s voice well enough to say whether or not it was him, but I _know_ that whatever I saw outside of Aunty Em’s was on the other side of that door.It’s not like I could have even… locked it out, or in, or whatever, so I just… ran.My ex would’ve let me stay with her—I mean, like, her girlfriend is one of my best friends, they would have housed me, but I didn’t want him to follow me there.I don’t know how he knew where I lived.I just… I stayed at an IHOP all night.

**ARCHIVIST**

Is that why you were here so early today?

**JASON**

…Yeah.I didn’t want to keep ordering coffee, and I think the Foundation has some extra security in place for… I don’t even know what to call that.Paranormal encounters?We practically have a cursed artifact museum in the basement.Which, ironically, made me think it would be pretty safe to stay here.

[METAL JINGLING, METAL SLIDING AGAINST METAL.]

**ARCHIVIST**

That was probably a good choice on your part.If anything, the Foundation exterior isn’t made of wood, so it isn’t like you’d have a repeat of your apartment break-in.

Oh, uh, and statement ends.

**JASON**

What’re these?

**ARCHIVIST**

_(he says it like it should have been obvious)_ Keys to the building, the archives, and my office.Did you report your situation to Quintus?Stay here until they can get a removal team to your apartment.

**JASON**

No, I haven’t.Is this… can you do this?

**ARCHIVIST**

My keys, my rules.Just don’t reorganize any of my stuff, please; it’ll drive me crazy if I can’t find things.There are couple blankets in the closet in my office.I’ll ask Quintus for the keys to one of the overnight investigation rooms on the fourth floor, but until then, you can sleep on the couch in the common room and just ask someone there to let you in when you need to shower or whatever.

**JASON**

I—thank you. But, uh, why do you have blankets in the archives?

**ARCHIVIST**

Anemia.Do you have a change of clothes?

**JASON**

Oh.Uh, no, I don’t.

**ARCHIVIST**

Ask Annabeth about that later.Her boyfriend is… uh, probably about the same size as you.

**JASON**

…Thanks, Nico.You really believe all this?

**ARCHIVIST**

…I do.

**JASON**

_(breathless laughter)_ I can’t decide if that’s better or worse.

**ARCHIVIST**

I know it’d be nice to hear that there’s no real danger, but I’m not… willing to take that chance.

**JASON**

Thank you.For looking out for me.

**ARCHIVIST**

It’s fine.Just… be vigilant.If Luke Castellan is following you around, me believing you is the least of your problems.

**JASON**

I know.But, seriously, I do appreciate it.The Foundation is a lot better secured than my apartment.

**ARCHIVIST**

Maybe so, but it isn’t impenetrable.

[TAPE CLICKS OFF.]

⏪ ⏸ ⏩

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hahaha i didn't notice until pasting the chapter title into the upload page, but the date i picked at random for this statement when i started writing it in may ended up being the same date (albeit three years earlier) as the day i'm posting


End file.
